Licence plate lamp
 

I upgraded my dim OEM licence plate LED's to aftermarket LED's and they seem excessively bright. Just wanted to confirm whether or not if it is illegal to have licence plate lamps that shine so bright at the licence plate that even the floor is somewhat lit up?

When it says to the rear of the vehicle, does that mean directly towards the driver behind you? Or does it mean you can't illuminate anything else but the licence plate?

Licence plate lamp
4.16 (1) The rear licence plate of a vehicle must be illuminated by a lamp that is capable of displaying only white light so that the numbers on the licence plate are legible from a distance of 15 m to the rear of the vehicle.

(2) The lamp required by subsection (1)
(a) must illuminate whenever the headlamps or parking lamps are illuminated, and
(b) must not project white light to the rear of the vehicle.

Never heard of anyone getting pulled over for too bright of a licence plate light, or getting a VI for it. Usually its when they make them a different colour like blue or red this happens.

Even if you do get a VI its the easiest thing to fix, so just leave them and see what happens. I mean their already in there.

That section you (OP) highlighted basically states that you can have the light shining up, down, left or right BUT NOT towards the car behind you.

You can't have any part of the bulb visible from the rear because if it was visible, it would be projecting light backwards.
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That is correct, the light must realistically only illuminate the license plate. Light bleed a) looks stupid and b) can be hazardous to following motorists. Someone standing 15 meters behind your vehicle must be able to read the plate number (and letters).

Really though regardless of that it doesn't comply with 4.02 anyways:

4.02
(1) A vehicle on a highway must only be equipped with and use lamps, reflectors or other illuminating devices authorized by this Division or authorized in writing by the director.
(2) A vehicle on a highway must be equipped with lamps equivalent to those provided by the original manufacturer in accordance with the requirements that applied under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Canada), or a predecessor to that Act, at the time of vehicle manufacture.
(3) All lamps, lamp bulbs and reflectors required or permitted by this Division must comply with
(a) the approved standards established by the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Canada) and the applicable SAE standards,

If an officer has difficulty reading your plate as a result of glare from the bulb being too bright I can certainly see you being pulled over (maybe not for that specifically but every questionable mod on a vehicle contributes negatively to an officer's determination of whether or not to pursue you as opposed to someone else).

Just blocked off 2/3 of the LED's on each side, still very bright but atleast it doesn't look like HID's are shining on my licence plate.

Mind if I ask what kind of aftermarket LED's you're using that are so bright?

I'm using these BMW HPB License Plate LED Light Upgrade Modules

It is interesting why people enhance the lights that display their licence plate. Even for esthetic reasons, isn't it only causing Police to direct more attention to your vehicle/plate number? It is screaming "Run my plate for checks!"

Well its not like i'm a criminal on the loose or something lol, some people like me likes brighter white licence plate lights

mine are similarly bright and nobody has ever had any issues with them, they've been on for maybe 2 years now?

With that many SMDs in there, it's pretty bright. This depends on the on which LED chip being used (you get the known lumen's off that) multiplied by the LEDs.

At least you blocked 2/3rds of it to make it more realistic but may need to block more so it does not look like the catches people's attention.